Athletics Nation

This team is really good (pause) NOT!

Please pull Smith..

hes killing us and my fantasy team!

Syphon - July 18, 2008 reply

Yeah, mine too

Almost as bad a sin as stinking. I put him in cuz the yanks such vs lh’s . . . or, at least, they used to

I really don't understand

why they don’t DFA DFA. I’m not a huge fan or critic, but if we’re rebuilding, and not competing…

They thought he was already DFA'ed when we named him DFA

because he is an RBI Machine

I get that, and if we

were competing this season, I’d understand keeping him out there (contrary to popular AN opinion). But I fail to see the benefit of keeping a 33 year-old, lifetime .261 hitter, particularly playing a position where we could be getting some talent we need evaluated at this level some playing time.

No matter how you slice it,

Emil Brown is a sub-.300 OBP hitter who plays below average defense.

Yes, but

like a lot of this team, if you could throw a few leaders on it, they are good role players. Emil can be a run-producer. He can be quite exciting. And he can be frustrating. He suffers from a lack of concentration, yes, but he’s also capable of fulfilling a role.

Not seeing it yet

hopefully soon

Definitely soon!

Please pull Greg Zito now

I can see why Billy gave up on the season. Injuries and rookies who understandably exposed to the league finally.

Nice first half but the not good enough to sustain a run.

Pessimist

Nah, Trainman's our little ray of sunshine.

Too little

I would prefer us winning

I DO NOT like losing.

Just being realistic.

I will be happier when Frank Thomas comes back. That will help.

Right now the bad players are being exposed (hitters). It’s annoying because there are players who can do much better and thankfully whatever happens, they will be here soon

Go A’s

Buck gets healthy and replaces Emil, Frank gets semi healthy and plays

when he can, Beane comes to his senses and recalls Bankston, Chavez….er never mind

great, now i have to cheer for the frickin red sox tonight

I have no trouble cheering for any team that plays the Angels

poor Emil...every game the A's suck...AN blames him

athleticsBB4life - July 18, 2008 reply

He's a horrible fielder

He should not be in outfield. I am not as harsh on his hitting because at least he goes up there and tries to hit the ball.

I blame him for shitty plays on which he sucks.

No one’s blaming the rest of today’s suckage on him.

I really don't think

he sucks so bad. I think he just makes NO SENSE for us right now.

I'm being facetious

athleticsBB4life - July 18, 2008 reply

click goes mlbtv

retire to couch with Kenko on audio

isn't it a bit early to retire out there?

At least

I got to see H-Rod pitch last night in Stockton and Chris Carter Play 3rd.

How'd they look?

Did Cardenas play?

H-Rod threw 5 scoreless innings. He was super wild though. Carter hit some balls hard, but they were all right at the fielders. He has minimal range, but a pretty good arm. Cardenas did not play. Donaldson hit a bomb. He has a really nice swing.

Sounds great! Carter needs to hit more line drives to be taken seriously as a prospect

Sounds like he’s started doing that.

He is hitting .260 now with 27 bombs. He is really fun to watch I hope he makes it to the bigs in the next couple of years.

i saw stockton on wednesday

carter was never really tested at third. he did make all the plays but he is not a third baseman. thing is they have three catchers right now so padron played first and struggled. Donaldson look pretty good

i did see the best catch of the year, though. visalia CF, Edny, i think his name was. he stuck his foot in the padding of the wall to boost himself up an extra two feet to pull a homerun back. anybody else see that?

Regarding testing Carter. Right when he was moved from 1st to 3rd in the 6th inning they bunted one right to him and he didn’t make the play. He is most likely going to be a DH if he makes it to Oakland.

That was one of the poorest pitching performances

of the season. Especially by someone under 200 lbs.

Greg Smith is becoming the ultimate “take and rake” pitcher: walks and HRs. 5 BB/1 HR tonight, 52 BBs/11 HRs for the season (114 IP). Not good.

Would it be fair to say the league has caught up to him?

Is he afraid? Has poor command? Or just not a very goodpitcher in general?

Its going to hurt to be an A's fan this year and next

at least we have Sweeney and Duke as bright spots. Other then them Im not very excited about the rest of this season.

You are aware they have won more games than they've lost

I said the rest of the year

The second half of the season

Yes and given the generally good first half what makes the second half a lost cause?

Im saying that I think

the A’s are going to lose more games then then did in the first half. I would be very happy with a team that goes .500 in the scond half.

Nah

we’ll be up in the mix next year. We’ve got some talent out there—it just ain’t gelling yet.

Don't forget

our unicorn. He’s done well tonight. He’s our ray of sunshine.

<3 Unicorn

agreed

With what?

sorry, wrong spot. agree that A's will be in the mix in 09

They're in the mix right now

talk to me after this road trip

we come back even in the position we’re in now, I’ll agree with you. Tough road trip, though. Seems like the FO is in rebuilding mode…

but likely not by end of year

I know the run differential argues otherwise, and I don’t think they got much weaker by trade. But does any of us really feel like this is going to be a .500 team the rest of the way? I sure hope so, but it’ll take health and hitting, and I can’t make the chase that we’ll get either.

We'll also get some guys up from the minors

Why not health? Duke’s the only question mark in my mind…and Buck. Frank and Eric can’t be counted upon. Crosby’s no better than his replacements.

They're starting to play like their roster,

which is not a good thing.

And that's another thing. I expect the roster to be far different on Aug 1

True Ellis is awesome

That False Ellis, though... what an asshat.

Evil Ellis

has a goatee

I really can't wait

To see CarGo develop into a amazing player.
It’s going to be fun.

Morgasm - July 18, 2008 reply

Yes.

And Sweeney and Ziggy, and possibly Eveland and Smith and Suzuki…

I think that the A's should focus on trying to play .500 ball the rest of the year.

brenarlo - July 18, 2008 reply

C'mon

Ry!

I really don't understand why Emil is playing.

Murton is superior defensively, has trade value, can still potentially get better, and his hitting couldn’t be marginally worse than Emil’s. Why is Emil still playing almost every day?

Great Point.

Tremendous point.

okay, lead off single

followed by …...

...another single.

Followed by, probably, Cust looking at strike 3.

Nope, swinging. My bad.

owch.

1 run on 9 hits at the moment

Hopefully both are about to change…

That doesn't speak well to

our consistency (thank you, JM!)

Please!

do we still like Cust as a whole?

athleticsBB4life - July 18, 2008 reply

I do.

But he’s not a #3 or #4 hitter.

I only like the HRs and BBs

Love him

Love his all or nothing. His HRs are incredible. His eye for pitches is impressive.

i really want to get a Ry Sweeney jersey shirt.

figure it would be valid for at least 2-3 more years

mmm... good idea

i might just have to do that, too

I wanted a C-Gon shirt, but they don’t have any yet.

i'm guessing i would have to custom-order the swooney shirt, no?

and same with c-gon….

It's hard to believe that a guy (Cust) can have such a great eye...

I mean… he doesn’t swing at balls… but misses on so many friggin’ swings!!!

brenarlo - July 18, 2008 reply

As a whole what? I have some ideas.

about what?

(reply button, reply….)

I know. I screwed up.

Emil has a chance to

make up for some sh*t here.

A whole lot of it

or take a sh*t!

uh huh.

SOAB!

Oh, screw you, Spam & Cano.

kendall oops i mean brown hit into doubleplay

1smasfan - July 18, 2008 reply

Renewed pessimisim

just when we start to think the present isn’t so bad, we face a multitude of reminders.

and 9 hits/1 run??? sigh…..

cvdoug - July 18, 2008 reply

click all

I'm irritated because the two teams I loathe,

and thus loathe losing to, are the Angels and Yankees. It’s been a rough week.

Agreed.

Completely. I hate them both too.

Red Sox and Angels for me.

Plus, the NY boyfriend

will give me a very hard time, and not in the good way.

I’m from NY so I don’t have as much hatred for the Yanks.

That makes me a sad panda.

And getting

rougher.

I am very excited about the prospect of the Angels losing

The greatest thing would be for Manny to hit a home run off K-Rod and do his usual pose at the plate and then walk around the bases.

I would pay a lot of money to see that

I would pay more money for a line drive off of K-Rods head, which resulted in an in the park home run.

Heck, it can result in a triple play

if it’s a humdinger.

I agree

I have said I never condone injuring a player but I will make this one exception.

Might as well make it a good one.

Same here - it's my one exception

Nice play Email

There goes the machine

double play machine, that is. We’ll win tomorrow with the Duke. Ryan Sweeney is really going to be great.

A'sfansince1970 - July 18, 2008 reply

He's been impressive.

Especially since I think the scouts had initially indicated he’d be no better than a fourth outfielder.

If the other three were Robinson, Mays and Aaron...

Joba - Gallagher tomorrow

Pettitte – Duke Sunday.

A's are taking the next two.

OK

i love liiiife

YES - mlb.com Probable Pitchers is now reporting this as well

I can finally officially believe it

Brown is being badly exposed in LF....and the batter's box

Most of his bad plays and errors are when he's in left it seems

It's true - none at SS!

Or in right

DMOAS - July 18, 2008 reply

Or the bases

Does he not know where his pants are?

DMOAS - July 18, 2008 reply

It's not a pretty sight

And the dugout. Otherwise...

REPLY, Nico! Jebus!

Bitter!

Um...

did you read my note yesterday about how I, um…love you all for being so anal…?

You'll be getting my response with corrections

FYI, sometimes when you "reply"

but other comments appear while you’re typing, the comment doesn’t appear in the right place.

I know.

I’m taunting.

About 30-35 comments down,

you can read about how that makes me feel.

Does it involve a single digit?

What about the A's batting with RISP?

Are we still talking about Kaz Tadano?

Reply Function Patrol out in full force tonight...

at some point you gotta believe they’re just doing it to frustrate you ;)

when you have

davis, swooney, and car gon in the outfield in makes brown look even worse. those three guys can play the position. seeing brown run around in circles hurts

Davis can't hit but Murton's a real option

When you have Earl Holloway, my Aunt Bertha,

and a paralyzed elk in the outfield, Brown still doesn’t come out too well.

I'm a fan of the elk

he it .330 in the PCL….

Bertha Mays?

Bertha Mays Aiken

No relation to Clay.

Claude?

aunt bertha on baseball reference

she had a nice year in 1963

Yeah - 10/18 off of Moyer that year

she must have been a lefty

I have no idea what Glen & Ray are talking about,

but Glen just said, “I got a single digit for you, tell me what you think…” And I immediately pictured him flipping Ray off.

I’m sure that’s not what was happening, though.

Please tell me it wasn't his "eleventh finger"

His camel tail?

That took me about fiove seconds...

I laughed.

do we??

keep Murphy or Hannahan when Chavez comes back?

MMunoz33 - July 18, 2008 reply

Hopefully, no.

to both?

MMunoz33 - July 18, 2008 reply

I could live with keeping Murphy if it meant jettisoning Crosby

I agree!

MMunoz33 - July 18, 2008 reply

I think if you saw Murphy every day you'd feel differently

No! No!!! I meant start Petit and have Murphy back up.

I'm pretty certain I would and BoCro's my identified problem.

I was surprised and disappointed

by Petit’s defense in this last stint, but pleasantly surprised by his bat.

Minor leaguers sometimes take a while to get used to big league parks on defense

No and No

Do we get rid of them tomorrow

Yes and yes.

Ooh, looks like Pedroia will have some GG competition this year.

Cano.

I know - did you see the way he reached his glove up

right where the ball was and was able to ignore the glow off of Jeter’s halo?

New Oldsmobiles are in early this year...

Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza

That’s where they got that new Picasso.

I know!

It looks like a dinosaur!

They're playing Blood, Sweat and Tears between innings?

Spinning Wheel?

No... something I can't remember the name of.

Oh Goody!

Braden against A-Rod.

Oh sweet baby jeezus no.

Oh good - it looks like Braden

has solved his problems getting righties out.

LOL!

Braden looks like

he might get into doing porn if Baseball doesn’t work out for him.

He certainly gets it up plenty

I tried that.

When my baseball career didn’t work out. It’s totally overrated.

I tried it too, and you're right - you are overrated.

He should apply to Ron Jeremy now

Baseball is not working out for him.

Whereas Kaz Tadano got into baseball when porn didn't work out for him.

Well, it was more along the lines of doing both but still.

It got awkward when the ump

asked, “What’s that on the ball?” Very awkward.

No applying spit while on the mound

Just swallowing

Gross!, but QOTM

dirty edition

Oh, are we going to have to start an "All Ages" one then do a "Mature Content" one?

Poppy!

HAH!

You’ll get one set of QOTM each month, it’ll include dirty things and you’ll like it!

QOTM, inflexible division

Apparently he had pixelated genitals

Join the club

Does this make you hot and sweaty?

Nice

That would seem to be

counter-productive in the porn industry.

Or Some

Hair gel.

Kaz could have just denied it.

There’s no way they could prove he really did gay porn. It’s censored. For all we know it was a hot dog or pickle or something.

Well there's also the matter of prancing around naked with other naked men on film

With a pickle.

What’s his alibi? It was for the Food Network?

I heard Richard Simmons likes chubby pickles.

They do stuff like that on Japanase game shows all the time.

I know. I was in Japan watching it for like an hour.

Those weren't game shows...

What.... what are you saying..

That would probably work about as well as

Smith denying he gave up a 3-run HR to Cano. You can deny it all you want.

I wonder if that would work with the

official scorer.

“Wasn’t me, dude. Wasn’t. I ain’t taking the hits. Wasn’t me”

Do they need to prove it

“beyond a reasonable doubt” or do they just need to show “a preponderance of the evidence”.

I gotta believe it's more

civil than criminal.

You obviously didn't see the pitch

But did Tadano catch?

I'm guessing he caught VD, crabs...

They switch off

It’s only fair.

Then there's Double Duty Radcliffe...

You would say that

because you’re not Kaz Tadano.

Yes!

Another walk!

Wait, wasn’t Braden supposed to be moving to the rotation?

Yes, on Tuesday.

Well, thank god

there’s still time.

To do something else, you mean?

To have Braden

meet with an “accident”...I mean, other than given a spot on a ML roster…

I'm still hoping for Gio

Commentary on YES Network:

“Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden, you would think, there’s gotta be a Texas connection there somwhere, huh? He was born in Phoenix, Arizona! But he did go to Texas Tech”

“Yeah but… I would think he had a name before he went to Texas Tech.”

LOL

Can't get anything past those guys

This gameday thread has gone down hill and fast

see what happens during blowouts

At least we're all still here

That's what Kaz Tadano said.

The down fast or the blowout?lol

Here's our chance!

Did anyone else

cringe at Vince’s VERY POOR Keith Jackson impression there?

Mussina has 261 wins

That’s a lot.

There's a law

against using cell phones in CA now?

Praise Buddha!

That means it’s coming here…in, like,. two decades.

While driving in a car without something hands-free, yes.

And if you’re a minor it’s banned.

Are we still talking about Tadano?

Hands-free, baby!

Hands free!

I could see this developing into one of AN's inside jokes.

Damnit, went there again.

Lol, is sex in the car against the law?

Look Mom no hands!

You talk to your mom during sex?

No, I blog

But you're aware that your mom is reading the blog...

Just to brag

No but

does it count when you call your girlfriend Mom and she changes your adult diaper?

Is it a thong diaper?

Do they make those?

No, really do they? I guess older chicks dont want diaper lines in their pants either.

It depends.

And she's a tranny who's actually your half-brother?

Er, hypothetically, obviously.

Get off the stick shift!

Thank you.

Just while driving.

You can still TEXT while driving, however. I’m not kidding.

Hands free texting?

No, hands-on texting.

It took so long to get the ban on talking passed, that texting had a dramatic increase in popularity in the meantime. Legislators didn’t want to add that to the bill and risk having it get even more stalled, so they’re going to introduce a separate bill about texting. Maybe. Someday.

In India there's a ban on cell phone usage of any kind while driving

$12 fine. Same as for drink driving.

A $12 fine for drunk driving?

I think it’s $20 just for going through the toll booth without paying. Which seems less deadly somehow.

In India they do things cheaper

in some countries, a DUI will land you a month in jail

even if you had one sip of liquor…..

I think the sentencing should be determined

by the sip. That way you can continually assess your risk/reward and make choices – something you do really well when you’re drunk.

I like that. Zero tolerance. I'm tough on crime....except when I commit them...

Or email.

Or read AN.

As well it should be.

only if you're over 18 years old

Law against cell phones?

Huh

Everyone striking out swinging turns out to be no more effective than everyone striking out looking.

But it shows fire in the belly

That’s good

On the bright side

the A’s lost and didnt score many runs but some batting averages are going to go up.

are you watching in a different time zone?

because no one has lost the game here on the west coast….

Is the game still on?

Depends on what channel you're watching

There's a game?

What kind?

Technically

the game isn’t being played on the west coast.

alright, a Brown with some talent is on the field!

The Yankkees have a Brown?!

Bobby Brown?

Didn't T-Long play for the Yanks at one time?

Everybody's talking,

but I keep on ~~smoking~~ walking

every time I see Brown, I get this fear that it's Jeremy Brown

I have a far worse problem -

every time I see Brown, I get this fear that it’s Emil, and it often is.

Brunch game tomorrow!

Bacon, eggs, and waffles. I’ll never get anything done.

What time should we come over?

Not here.

(i hate the east coast)

You've got Lipitor I hope

What's his VORP?

The Doctors have been lying...

Bacon is GOOD for your heart.

Makes itr work harder

It’s gotta try, runs better.

Pork Fat

Rules!

Yes? What are the rules? I'm listening.

Just don't have it too

often. Everything in moderation.

It's better than some types of fish!

Really! Tilapia is worse for your heart than red meat and bacon. I saw it on CNN, I think, so it must be true.

They never lie.

It's not news... it's CNN.

On Fox News, I heard that fish and pork

are both forms of terrorism that justify our high gas prices.

I think they call it earmarks now.

I just read it on the internet so that proves it.

I only believe it if Sanjay Gupta said it.

Guess I wouldn't believe in anything,

if it weren’t for my lucky astrology mood watch!

That might call for lipoSUCTION

I want to move to the West Coast just for the sake of 10AM Baseball

it sounds so damn glorious

It is.

(i hate the east coast)

Earthquakes blow though

Hurricanes in the East, Tornados in the Midwest

Pick your poison.

Eh.

Been through a lot of them.

No, tornados and hurricanes blow.

Earthquakes shake. Geez.

Earthquakes can be fun.

Apparently, every so often, a hurricane rips through this god-forsaken state and just destroys everything.

But let’s worry about earthquakes.

They arent that bad

but the one down here 2 years ago scared the hell out of me. My street looked like the waves that I surf. Even worse was the length of it, it was over 30 seconds. I went through many living in SJ growing up but the one here was super ass scary.

A's games starting at 10pm every night is starting to kill me

especially since I watch the Mets’ 7pm games first

Yeah, I'm not getting the sleep I need.

But I don’t share your horrible Mets affliction. I’m sorry for your condition.

+1, MLB package is causing lack of sleep

I imagine "The Big Hurt" would be a bad porn name

Not really.

Some people are into that.

Not if it were horror porn

Snuff porn.

Smurf Porn?

All on Smurfette or is it “Kaz” type porn?

Porn name= The first pet you had and the first street you grew up on

Mac= Roach Devonshire

Roadkill Not A Through Street?

DeeDee

Amigos! :Rolls Tongue:

HAHAHAHAH

Fluffy Sandpiper

Are we still talking about...

Extra Thousand Oaks

You shouldn't have named your pet "Extra Thousand"

Cupcake St. Joseph

Cupcakes! Joseph!

LOL

Haha!

Oh golly!

Snuffy Turner

Pecs!

Wha wha wha WHA? WHERE?!?

oh... right. i thought we were going to see actual pecs. damn.

just read the story about it... mm. dinardo is cool with me now.

LOL. Sorry!

Haha :) I just found pics of The Pecs... and they are not impressive.

How disappointing.

um..share please.

And how are they not impressive? I heard he was ripped!

You may have heard a lie... we all did...

I think I’ve seen the pic schmifty is referring to. Sad.

Um...this one isn't too shabby...

Lenny is on left. (Bronson Arroyo on right.)

Not that I spend too much time thinking about this...

or remembering this…but there was a very nice photo of Lenny by the pool in his swimming days floating around on the interwebs somewhere…

off to do a Google image search…

Here you go

link

Help

How do you post an image if you don’t have a url?

upload it to a hosting site like photobucket

and grab the URL from there

WooHooo!

Um.

That’s not the same picture I saw.

You can thank me later.

I love Pecs!

OMG you're in a game thread...commenting!

yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha...yep.

Too bad this game isn’t better. And AN not refreshing right for me. Pissing me off.

You what else is refreshing...?

Please kill the ad execs who wrote these ads.

(hides under bed)

Awesome! SuperCuts will shave my head on July 27!

Are we still talking about Tadano?

?

Coliseum promo.

Get your head shaved at the Coli, and get an outfield ticket.

Really?

Unfortunate I am not there…

I think I'll go for it.

My hair grows fast, it’ll come back.

damn, one day too late for me

You let me shave your head I will buy you a better ticket

I have never shaven a chicks head bald, would be fun

I shaved

my ex-wife’s head once—that was fun.

Is that why she's your ex?

Among many reasons...

....maybe.

"We won't cut Emil Brown, but we'll cut your hair!"

Maybe they promoted Emil to Barber

Did I just read on Oaklandathletics.com that Braden is starting on Tuesday

Tell me I am wrong in what I read

It true is. Welcome to the mid 90s.

When's Berroa bat?

Now there's a blast from the past

I remember him hitting 3 dingers against the Yankees in one game and three against Minny. I think McGwire hit 2 in the same game as well.

They also said Blanton was starting tonight.

Braden = Darling

give or take.

Apparently Geren said that Braden was starting

That is not very appealing is it.

Well, he almost made it one hitter

before allowing a HR to a righty.

Maybe A-Rod offered Braden one of his harem for the night

If he served up a meatball

He's not increasing his trade value is he?

Ok I have a confession to make

there is alot of love in here and I have had a couple of beers. I watch alot of the Angle games to watch them lose but I have to admit that the Angels have some nice looking female fans. Dont hate me for admitting that some chicks look good in red.